Dollywood Cinnamon Bread (Copycat Recipe)

Make easy copycat Dollywood cinnamon bread with frozen bread dough, butter, cinnamon, and sugar for a fluffy loaf with caramelized edges.

If you’ve ever stood in line at Dollywood for a loaf of their famous cinnamon bread, you already know why people make such a fuss over it. This easy copycat Dollywood cinnamon bread starts with frozen bread dough, which makes it unbelievably simple to recreate that warm, buttery cinnamon-sugar experience at home.

The bread bakes up incredibly light and fluffy, while the butter, cinnamon, and sugar caramelize around the top and sides. And best of all? There’s no need to make yeast dough from scratch.

My Dollywood Cinnamon Bread Story

Summer before last, I took our whole family—15 of us!—to Dollywood.

And y'all, it was HOT.

By the end of the day we were exhausted. I wasn't feeling well at all, either. In fact, by that point I would've been perfectly happy to crawl into bed—and there was a moment when I wondered if an ER might be in my future.

But there was one thing we knew for an absolute fact before we left the park:

We had to go back for the cinnamon bread.

So there I was, tired, hot, feeling absolutely miserable...standing in line at the bakery because we were not leaving Dollywood without another loaf of that bread to take back to the Airbnb.

If that doesn't tell you how good Dollywood's cinnamon bread is, I don't know what will.

An Easy Dollywood-Inspired Cinnamon Bread at Home

I've been baking for a long time, but I'm still discovering shortcuts. And frozen bread dough? Apparently that's another box I can bake out of.

That's really what Out of the Box Baking has always been about. I love taking something that might be considered a baking shortcut and doctoring it until you end up with something that tastes completely homemade.

I hadn't done much experimenting with frozen bread dough before this, and after making this bread I'm wondering where it has been all my life. The dough is remarkably light and fluffy, and it made this recipe ridiculously easy.

Is this an exact replica of Dollywood's famous cinnamon bread? I'm not going to go out on a limb and claim that it is identical.

But I will tell you this: it was much closer than I expected it to be.

And the grandkids loved it, which is always the real test around here.

What Makes This Cinnamon Bread So Good?

For me, it was the combination of textures.

The inside of the bread stayed pillowy-soft and fluffy. But around the outside, the butter, cinnamon, and sugar caramelized beautifully—not just across the top, but down around the sides of the loaf.

That means when you pull off a piece, you get that soft bread along with those buttery, slightly sticky, caramelized cinnamon-sugar edges.

And that's where the magic happens.

Ingredients

• 1 loaf Rhodes frozen bread dough
• 3 tablespoons, melted
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

You'll find a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.

How to Make Easy Copycat Dollywood Cinnamon Bread

Start by placing one Rhodes frozen dough loaf into a well-greased loaf pan.

Lightly spray the underside of a piece of plastic wrap with nonstick cooking spray and place it over the pan. Let the dough sit at room temperature for about 2 hours.

Here's something important I learned while making this recipe: don't wait until the dough is completely risen to work with it.

After about two hours, mine was mostly thawed but still very cold. That turned out to be the perfect stage for cutting and filling it because the dough was soft enough to work with but still firm enough to handle easily.

Melt three tablespoons of butter in a small bowl and set aside. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a different bowl and set it aside, also.

Remove the partially thawed dough from the pan. Make five slits in the dough, cutting about ¾ of the way down through the dough. You're not looking for separate pieces here, but fairly deep slits.

Brush generously with melted butter and add your cinnamon-sugar mixture between the sections. Apply liberally and allow the cinnamon and sugar to fall onto the plastic wrap. Now take your dough and roll it in the cinnamon sugar to cover the whole loaf, making sure the sides are coated well.

Transfer the pieces gingerly back into the loaf pan. Don't worry about making them perfect. They'll expand and come together beautifully during the second rise. (If you like you can use a bench scraper for this process. I did this the old fashioned way. . .with my hands.)

Brush on a little additional butter and sprinkle on some more cinnamon sugar wherever you think the loaf needs it.

Cover with a fresh piece of lightly sprayed plastic wrap and allow the bread to continue rising for another couple of hours, or until nicely risen and ready for the oven. Make sure the loaf is fully risen like you see here.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Brush on a little more butter and sprinkle once again with cinnamon sugar.

Place in preheated 350 degree oven and bake until beautifully golden brown and baked through.

My loaf took about 25 minutes, and I covered it loosely with foil for approximately the final 5 minutes to keep the top from becoming too dark. I checked my temperature and the loaf was just over 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove from oven and place loaf pan on a wire rack to cool.

After a few minutes turn out the loaf directly onto the rack. (Check out the caramelization on the bottom of that loaf!)

A Little Trick I Learned After Baking

When I pulled the bread apart, I noticed that the cinnamon-sugar mixture hadn't traveled quite as far down between the pieces as I had hoped.

That's simply part of this easy method. We're not rolling out the dough and creating dozens of thin cinnamon layers. And I didn't want to complicate a method that was working so beautifully.

Instead, after separating the warm pieces, I added just the tiniest bit of melted butter and a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar to some of those freshly exposed surfaces. Problem solved.

You still get all the convenience of this incredibly easy method, along with plenty of cinnamon-sugar goodness.

Why I Love Using Frozen Bread Dough

This experiment opened my eyes to something. I've spent years showing bakers how to doctor cake mixes and other convenience ingredients. Somehow, frozen bread dough had escaped my attention.

Not anymore. For very little money, you can have a loaf of bread that tastes remarkably bakery-like without mixing, kneading, or worrying about yeast.

And now my mind is spinning with all the things I want to put between those pieces of dough. Caramel apple? Pecan pie? Chocolate hazelnut?

We're just getting started.

More Dolly Parton-Inspired Recipes

I've been having so much fun creating recipes inspired by Dolly Parton, her Southern roots, and her line of baking mixes. Some begin with a Dolly Parton baking mix, while others—like this cinnamon bread—are inspired by foods and flavors associated with Dollywood and the South.

Be sure to check out my growing collection, including:

• Dolly Parton Banana Bread
• Dolly Parton Banana Bread Cookies
• Dolly Parton Pineapple Coconut Cake
• Dolly Parton Coconut Cookies with Lemon Glaze
• Dolly Parton Apples & Bananas Dump Cake
• Dolly Parton Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies with Nutella
• Dolly Parton Gooey Butter Bars
• Dolly Parton Mississippi Mud Cake
• Strawberry Pound Cake
• Strawberry Pound Cake
• Dolly Parton Sock It to Me Cake
• Dolly Parton Strawberry Lemonade Cheesecake Bars

And we already know Pecan Pie Brownies using the Dolly Double Fudge Brownie Mix are coming. 😄

Final Thoughts

There aren't many foods I'd stand in a long line for after spending a blazing-hot day walking around a theme park while feeling terrible.

Dollywood cinnamon bread is one of them.

This easy frozen-dough version brought back that memory immediately. It's not difficult or fussy, and I'm not going to tell you it's an exact replica of the loaf we carried back to our Airbnb that night.

But it has the things I remember loving most: soft, fluffy bread and those buttery, caramelized cinnamon-sugar edges.

And if my grandkids' reaction is any indication, this one's going into the permanent rotation.

Now that I've discovered what frozen bread dough can do, however, I'm afraid I've created another problem.

I want to stuff everything into it.

Stay tuned. 😄

Thanks for Stopping By!

If you make this bread and love it, please leave a comment or review. And before you go, why not pin some photos to your Pinterest boards?